Thread by @WillCleveland13

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is now unveiling the city’s unified plan for police reform and reinvention in an online presentation. #roc @DandC

You can watch it here: youtube.com/c/CityofRoches…

(I've read the plan and will share takeaways and findings in the morning.)

Warren is now outlining "real changes" seen under her administration, including the body-worn camera program and the Police Accountability Board.

The dept currently employs 850 people, including 724 sworn officers, she said.

RPD sworn officers are 87 percent, while just 47 percent of the city is white.

She said she will outline recruiting effort revisions later.

Outside of Birmingham, Alabama, Rochester has more officers per capita than other city with a population between 150,000 and 200,000 residents.

She said Rochester is a much safer city than it was 20 years ago.

Perception is reality, however, and many people don't think this city is safe. She said she is aiming to change that perception.

Crime and calls for service trends: Calls for services are declining, so maybe it's time to explore alternative response options.

Now" creation of the Office of Crisis of Intervention Services, which includes the Family Crisis Intervention Team, Victim Assistance Unit, Homicide Response Team, and the Person in Crisis team.

PIC launched last month. It's still not available as a co-response with RPD.

Draft recommendations include the following:

After reading this plan, it is short on specifics, how it will be paid for, and when some of these reforms will be implemented. We’ll follow up on that in the future.

Some of these changes will require action at the state level, including firing an officer immediately for cause and requiring officers to live in the city.

The city has a ton of outreach programs, but the plan rightfully points out, how do you judge the effectiveness of these programs?

Warren wants to increase the amount of information and data available through its open data portal.

“Complete transparency,” she says.

Improving the body-worn camera program through increased training using existing RPD budgeted funds.

Humility and empathy: here’s the first reference to former President Obama and his 21st century policing program.

Improve officer wellness through assessment surveys, annual psychological evaluations and promotion of peer support.

Wants RPD policy to include an “express sanctity of life provision,” create laws related to breathing restrictions. No handcuffing of suspects younger than 12. Officers must de-escalate their encounters with the public.

Warren wants to shrink the size of the department in the next 5-10 years through transferring some responsibilities to civilians and rehiring a commissioner of public safety to have final day on budget.

Increase number of officers who receive crisis intervention training.

Overhaul the civil service hiring program. This would require state action. She says the program is inherently biased. It shouldn’t be based on test scores.

Echoing a UCLM recommendation, Warren calls for the creation of a civilian public safety interview panels to assess police candidates.

Ask federal courts to remove the consent decree from 1974 that caps minority representation in RPD sworn officers at 25 percent.

(I definitely need to do more research here.)

Asking state DCJS, by state law, to require implicit and explicit bias training. Also training for systemic racism.

This is only a draft, she said. The working group only provided one voice and now she’s asking for feedback. None of the groups have seen all of these recommendations yet.

Reminder that the two working group retreat meetings on Friday and Monday weren’t open to public view.

Here’s how city residents can provide feedback, she said.

Also asking the working group members to gather feedback to help revise the next draft of this plan.

As I was told earlier, the RASE Commission recommendations have not yet been finalized.

(Which is kinda crazy, since both UCLM and the PAB were able to publish exhaustive recommendations more than a month ago.)

Unclear how much the plan will change once the RASE Commission recommendations are ready. Because the plans offered by the PAB and UCLM were certainly more progressive.

City Council Vice President Willie Lightfoot now speaking. Says he is looking forward to public input. Final proposal will be given to City Council after March 4.

Rev. Lewis Stewart, president of United Christian Leadership Ministry, now speaking. Says the working group's efforts are not yet done.

Retired RPD Deputy Chief Wayne Harris, who is appearing on behalf of the RASE Commission, speaking now. He says it will use the draft to inform the commission's recommendations.

But I don't believe it will be changed much after RASE finally comes up with its recommendations.

Council member Miguel Melendez says it is imperative to include as many voices as possible in the drafting of this plan.

RPD recommendations were not made public as Mayor Warren promised last month.

I have the WilmerHale compilation of recommendations and statistics. It is 419 pages long and reads like book report, in that it is basically a compilation of statistics, outside sources.

(Kinda like an expensive bibliography.)

Meeting is over. No opportunity given for public comment or media questions. (Though to be fair, I wasn't expecting to have this option.)

The full draft proposal is available here: cityofrochester.gov/uploadedFiles/…

To be clear, the link in the previous tweet includes recommendations offered by PAB, Pastors' Roundtable, UCLM, and WilmerHale.

It doesn't include proposals from RPD and RASE commission.

At a press conference announcing the launch of the PIC team on Jan. 21, Mayor Warren said RASE and RPD recommendations would be included as addendums to this unified plan. Tonight, we found out RASE hasn't provided any findings and RPD hasn't made anything public.

So we're not even sure if RPD even offered any recommendations. I'll ask.

But here's a thread (with video) where Warren promised those recommendations would be made public as addendums. They weren't.

https://twitter.com/WillCleveland13/status/1352612971097321472

Time for dinner. Thanks for following along. My story, highlighting my observations and takeaways, will be published in the morning.

.@seanlahman wrote about the consent decree a few years back.

He wrote, "It mandates that one in four police hires be minorities. It's a threshold that the city often failed to meet..."

It doesn't say there is a cap on minority candidates.

democratandchronicle.com/story/news/201…

Of note, @ftp_roc is now live on Facebook, offering its critique of the Mayor's plan: facebook.com/watch/live/?v=…

Also important to remember, the advocates (Stanley Martin from FTP, @danielleponder1, @ravi_mangla, Rev. Myra Brown) speaking on Facebook right now were not included in the crafting of the city's executive order 203 plan for police reform and reinvention.

Now I'm clocking out (or my wife will rightfully kill me).